This is a story of an ocean dream Didi had.
In the dream Didi met a turtle with a piece of plastic in its mouth, and just as she was about to touch a pretty little blue-ringed octopus — yikes!
After waking up, Didi makes up her mind to become a real ocean guardian.
Phew, my hand is all right
"Phew… thank goodness, my hand is okay."
The very first thing I did the moment I snapped my eyes open — do you know what it was?
I looked at my fingertips.
In the dream, I was just about to touch a tiny, pretty blue octopus.
But somebody shouted, "Stop!" and that's what jolted me awake.
My heart was thumping. Wait, was all of that really just a dream?
I hugged my blanket and lay still, going back over the underwater scene I had just left.
The dream began with a seagull touched by oil
The dream opened up on a quiet seashore.
The sound of the waves felt so refreshing — I was just thinking, "Wow, this is lovely!" when a seagull overhead started flapping hard and seemed to be struggling.
It kept flapping its wings but kept slipping in the air, not flying well.
When I got closer, I saw its feathers had something sticky all over them.
Such a fresh sea — so why is this gull having such a hard time?
I heard that when oil leaks from a damaged ship and clings to a bird's feathers, its wings get heavy and it can't fly well.
My heart sank. If the surface of the sea is like this, would the world below still be all right?
I took a big breath in and dove right down into the sea.
A beautiful undersea world — but inside the turtle's mouth…
At first it was truly beautiful.
Wow, it's still so clean down here!
Schools of fish darted past me between the colourful corals, and sunlight glittered along every ripple.
So I let my heart settle, completely relaxed — and then.
A little ahead of me, I saw a turtle.
But something was stuck in its mouth and it looked uncomfortable.
When I got closer I realised — it was a piece of clear plastic.
It must have thought the plastic bag drifting in the water was a jellyfish, and snapped at it.
How uncomfortable that must feel…
Just as my heart sank, a rescue diver in a wetsuit came swimming over.
This is someone who helps ocean animals, I was told.
They eased the plastic out of the turtle's mouth, and then — the turtle swam off freely again!
Phew, what a relief.
Some people may hurt the sea, but there are also people who look after it like this.
What was hiding inside the fish's belly
I swam on a little more, and then — I could see straight into the belly of a fish.
Inside, there were tiny little grains, all over.
Huh — are those all bits of plastic?!
When the plastic we use and throw away breaks up into very small pieces in the sea, it turns into tiny grains.
They're so small they're hard to see, but fish mistake them for food and swallow them right up, I learned.
The sea, which had looked perfectly fine on the outside, was hurting like this on the inside.
Hands that put the little crab back in
Far away I could see a fishing boat catching crabs with its net.
But really tiny baby crabs were being pulled up in the net too.
Uh-oh, if they take even ones that small, what happens then?
I watched a little anxiously, but then the fisherman gently put the small crabs back into the sea, one by one.
He waits until they grow up bigger, I was told.
For each kind of sea creature, there's a size you're allowed to catch, and certain times when you're not allowed to catch them.
If a little friend is too small, you send them back so they can grow up bigger in the sea.
That way, friends in the sea can keep on living. Hee hee, I think I'm starting to understand the rules of the sea now!
The moment I reached out — "Stop!"
And then a little octopus popped out from between some rocks.
Its blue ring patterns sparkled and shimmered — so very pretty.
"Wow, so pretty~ Maybe just one little touch?"
Without even thinking, I stretched out my hand.
"Don't touch it!"
Someone quickly blocked my hand.
That blue-ringed octopus has a really strong poison in its body, even though its pattern is so pretty, I was told.
